TULAROSA BASIN

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OLDNAVYMCPO

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I can't seem to hang around the house for very many days without suffering a severe case of cabin fever. Going to the range once a week to pop a few caps, helps to mitigate the suffering, but not much. Have to take a trip somewhere every couple of weeks. Just need to get out among the mountains and forest.

Took a drive through Alamogordo, Tularosa and into the Sacramento Mountains for Cloudcroft and cool air and Douglas Firs. Drove past the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park which triggered my mind to thinking about the convoluted history of the Tularosa Basin. All the news surrounding the recent discovery of a new photo of Billy The Kid just helped to aggravate my brain functions.

This entire area is permeated with an amazing history. Fort Stanton, Hondo, the Mescalero Apache, Pat Garrett, the Lincoln County wars, Albert J. Fountain ( his disappearance along with his young son), A.B. Fall ( the fall guy), his Three Rivers Ranch, White Sands, White Oaks, No Gal Canyon, the Mal Pais, and the list goes on and on.

The entire Tularosa Basin is the center piece for many of the novels by Michael McGarrity, an ex-LEO and one of my favorite authors.

In Cloudcroft itself, there is a gun shop ( no need for a name, its the only one in town). The place is small and is run by a father- daughter team. Nice place to visit. The old man is retired military, very knowledgeable, and offers much more than the typical LGS offerings. Always my first stop in town. On display something that caught my eye was a New York Reload holster for two 1911's. The wife and I got to laughing about the idea of me trying to hold my britches up while carrying two 1911's.

Anyway, we got out of the El Paso heat for a while and saw some trees and enjoyed a pleasant day.
 
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Love the area. We actually have a place in Ruidoso. A great escape from the August TX heat. I'll have to check out the Cloudcroft shop when we are in the area.
 
AZretired said:
Early in my LE career I lived in La Luz and worked at WSMR in the Mid Range area. Used to take the kids tubing up near Cloudcroft during the winter.
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Back in the day,La Luz was the city, Alamogordo just sort of sprang up over nite because of the railroad. La Luz was the center of the community that all the Texans settled around when they first drifted into the area. They pushed out most of the Mexican subsistence farmers in the area. That's what stirred the agitation in the basin and led to a lot of lead slinging in the day.
 
Yup, my grandmother was born in Tularosa in 1914, and her folks had come around the turn of the previous century from Llano and San Saba counties in Texas.
 
DoubleAdobe said:
Yup, my grandmother was born in Tularosa in 1914, and her folks had come around the turn of the previous century from Llano and San Saba counties in Texas.
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That is too cool. There has got to be a lot of family history surrounding that branch of your family. I hope some of that has been preserved by some family member. Would probably make a heck of a good book.
 
If you haven't done so yet, read Sonnichsen's Tularosa. Tells a lot about the whole area and has a very good account of the Col. Fountain murder.

The Three Rivers Petroglyph State Park is incredible, and is near the Three Rivers Ranch, A.B. Fall's home.

I just missed signing up for the annual pilgrimage to the Eugene Manlove Rhodes gravesite, located on WSMR. Deadline was 9 October. It's a beautiful place (I made the tour once), and I hope to get enough advanced warning to make it next year.
 
My wife and I used to drive up that way when I was stationed at Biggs Field in the late 80's. It's really a nice area. :)
 
CATI1835 said:
Love the area. We actually have a place in Ruidoso. A great escape from the August TX heat. I'll have to check out the Cloudcroft shop when we are in the area.
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Spent a Christmas in Cloudcroft------42 years ago.:eek: I'm gettin old.:confused:
 
Perhaps I was born in the wrong place and wrong time, but when I even hear the name Tularosa, I want to be there...then.
It just grabs my attention, there and the whole south west and the 1800s.
 
I worked at the WSMR in the late 50's and of course stayed at Alamogordo. Loved Cloudcroft, used to go up there just to fetch some clean mountain drinking water. Do they still have the up and down the side of the mountain golf course up there, can't remember the name?
 
The golf course is still there, adjacent to The Lodge Resort. It is unique. The Lodge is also an interesting place to stay/visit.
 
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